The Working Time Regulations 1998: Guidance on the legislation
Appendix 5: Summary of exemptions and modifications
NB: This table only covers possible exemptions or modifications to those Regulations that are enforced by HSE/LAs. There are subtle variations between many of the permitted changes and it is essential that the Regulations themselves be referred to in order to determine what is or is not allowed.
| Weekly working limit (regs.4(1) & (2)) | Night work limit (regs. 6(1) & (2)) | Night work limit for special hazards (reg. 6(7)) | Health assessments (regs.7 (1) & (6)) | Pattern of work (reg.8) | Record keeping (reg.9) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual agreement to exclude maximum (opt-out) (reg.4(1)) | Does not apply | Reduced to regs.6(1) & (7) requirement | ||||
| Excluded sectors (reg.18) including armed forces (reg.25) | Do not apply | reg. 7(2) on health assessments for young workers still applies, remainder do not | Do not apply | |||
| Domestic servants (reg.19) | Do not apply | |||||
| Fully unmeasured working time (reg.20(1)) | Do not apply | Only required for health assessments regs.7(1) &(2) | ||||
| Certain doctors in training (reg. 25A) | 52 hours average for those doctors listed in schedule 2A of SI2009 No 1567 | |||||
| Special cases (reg.21) | Do not apply subject to provision of compensatory rest (reg.24) | |||||
| Collective and workforce agreements (reg.23) | Can modify reference period to not exceeding 52 weeks NB: reg.4(5) cannot modify 26 week reference for special cases listed in reg. 21 |
Can modify or exclude application subject to provision of compensatory rest. Includes modification of reference period (reg.6(3)) in relation to particular workers or groups of workers | ||||